Echo Sleeps
by Mai Thomson
Summary: It's a bit of a sugary ending to the events of Epitaph II. Echo/Alpha post-reformed. 'He came back. He always came back to her. Even when he couldn't remember his own name, he remembered her.'


"Echo sleeps"

There is something like magic in the way she sleeps.

She looks peaceful,

like she's never been abused, or scarred,

but it's a lie.

She looks like an angel,

But she's not.

Angels don't get broken.

They've got god on their side.

It's not that Alpha doesn't believe anymore.

Some of him does.

But most of him is just angry.

Angry for her, even though he's most of the reason she's here.

He came back for her.

He always does.

Even when he couldn't

Remember his own name,

He came back.

He'd written down the way,

Along with her picture.

He knew he had to find her, even with nothing left.

She wakes as he falls asleep, and she smiles.

She sees him, and though more than a few of the voices in her head warn her away,

She reaches out and takes his hand.

He does not wake, but his fingers curl around hers.

Priya and Tony are frightened when they find them.

"He left!" she shrieks. "He was going to leave-"

But she has woken them.

Alpha jerks awake, taking a moment to remember where he is, walled up behind and below.

He is halfway to his feet when he realizes he is holding someone's hand.

Echo wakes reluctantly to Sierra's voice, and looks up at them.

"He came back."

She smiles at the man, and he looks confused, almost angry.

But she is used to him angry. Used to him with more serial killers than thinkers,

And now that he is just one man,

With all that knowledge locked away

She feels a tug at her heart.

She explains that they must wait a year.

He doesn't understand, but the way she looks at him makes him dizzy.

She looks like she has forgotten more about him than he will ever know.

Like she's seen the whole world, and it's not so heavy with him here.

So he stays,

Like he was always going to,

And he watches this girl he knows nothing about,

And tries to understand.

She reaches out for him, often.

She does the same with Priya and Tony, who still keep their son far from him,

But won't explain why,

And with the strange people with rivets in their faces.

She touches them like she's not sure they'll really be there.

But she touches him without thinking.

Like reaching out for his face

When she sees that he is struggling.

Like she knows there is a demon inside him

And like maybe she has one too.

So he breaths. And sometimes he remembers

Or thinks he can

That once there was

A drive at midnight, with her curled up beside him

Saying things softly in his ear

Like she trusts him, like he is everything

And that there was a tall man,

With his arms around her.

But he isn't here with her, below the city

Like Alpha is.

He had a different name when he woke.

He remembered a different life,

Like it had a red haze over it.

But she calls him Alpha, and he knows she is right

They all cry

For someone

Named Topher

And he doesn't understand

Even Echo.

She looks upwards sometimes

With such sadness in her eyes that it is all he can do not to gather her in his arms

Just to make her smile again.

But he knows that people have to grieve

It is the way of things.

He of all people should know that

And Echo should never be like him.

He waits

Not knowing exactly what he is waiting for

Not even really knowing he is waiting,

Until the day she looks at him, with a strange smile on her face.

"Tomorrow."

She says

"Tomorrow, we can go."

"Tomorrow we are Free."

Alpha is afraid.

He doesn't know

Anything about the world outside

Except as somewhere he is alone.

He is Angry with her

For making him so scared.

He doesn't want to need

Anyone.

But she looks at him with those eyes

Like he's something

Precious

So he reaches out

It's strange that this new fear

Is what it takes

To let him hold her

When he couldn't before

She is like

Nothing, nothing else in the world

Because she is the world itself

To him.

And when they step out into the sunlight

They do it hand in hand

There is a little voice in Alpha's head that says

Something

Something about a love supreme,

But he looks at the faces of Victor

And Sierra,

And he shakes his head

Supreme?

No. just love.

Love, and finally after all these years,

Peace.


End file.
